Free agent wish list

1. Mario Williams, DE, Houston Texans: The Texans used him as a 3-4 rush outside linebacker last year, but I think his best spot is as a 4-3 end.

2. Cliff Avril, DE, Detroit Lions: He has 19 1/2 sacks the past two seasons, including 11 last season. He has developed into a top pass rusher. He turns 26 in April, which makes him even more valuable.

3.Red Bryant, DT, Seattle Seahawks: He had eight starts in his first three seasons, but started 16 in 2011 and was a force on the Seattle defense. He is a perfect 3-4 end, which is where he played last season. He is this year's Ray McDonald. He turns 28 in April.

4. Tyvon Branch, S, Oakland Raiders: Branch led the Raiders in tackles and should have been in the Pro Bowl. He has improved in coverage as well. He turns 26 in December.

5. Anthony Spencer, OLB, Dallas Cowboys: In a league desperate for pass-rush help, he will get action on the market, even though his six-sack total was a disappointment last season. He just turned 28 in January.

I know its a pipe dream but hey we all can dream sometime

Dino, I think the chance of the Packers getting any of these guys is between 0% and 1%. If you haven't noticed by now, Ted Thompson doesn't believe in free agency. He's strictly a draft-and-develop general manager.

I have to agree with him here. All of the guys you listed are excellent players, but in free agency, they will get more than they're worth. The only kind of free agent who is worth picking up, IMHO, is a low profile player who has been playing in the wrong system. In such a case, he can be acquired for under market value.

TT will attempt to fill all the Packers' holes through the draft and in the long run, that is definitely the way to go.

<G> Duck, Duck, Goose--WTF is on the loose? I'm surprised to hear you quacking a tune such as that-- Pull yo' bill out of yo' ass, willya Yolanda--and recognize your perversion into polarized quackfucked thinking?

As is well established, TT is a one-trick pony who only has half his barrel lined with ducks in a row... Get beyond the draft--and that boy goes hungry when he goes squirrel huntin' without a shotgun--for it matters little your stamina--if only on Tuesday afternoons you carry the hammer to deliver the punch... Right Thor? LOL!

Well, well, look who terminated his motorcycle ride into the sunset and decided to rejoin us. I hear Thor was trying to convince PFKIA and a few others to making a trip to Kiln, MS -- I mean Minnesota -- to talk you out of retirement. Glad they were spared further indignities.

Are you suggesting TT's game plan has flaws in it?? Horrors. It just so happens I agree with you. The guy gets a solid A for his drafting but B's and C's for his use of free agency and overall utilization of all the tools available to a GM. However, I don't have a better alternative... do you?

TT is still way better than most NFL GMs, and even with his flaws, he still has the Packers positioned nicely to be contenders for the next few years. I'm not even close to advocating his dismissal or anything like that. The odds are we would do much worse with someone new... and that someone would very likely tear down the nice foundation TT has built up all these years.

IMHO, if the Packers slide or even plateau over the next couple of years, discussion of a change up top is warranted. However, coming off a Super Bowl winning year and a successful 15-2 campaign in which they laid a shocking playoff egg to the eventual champs after an emotional week, TT -- with all his warts -- still merits a solid vote of confidence.

Oh, wait a minute... do I hear Mike Sherman may still be available?

LOL! Duck... God Damn it... I'm away for a month and as many weeks--and you're already finding it so hard to shed that polaristic tendency...

A for the draft? On balance--as has been profiled extensively on good measure by those worth their commentary in the past--No further review by the board necessary. Rubber stamp it by the $7/hour bitch in the tight skirt who works the desk. Warranted. *B or C* however for free agency? LOL! Roofer would never never lick your ass before he stabs it over that homeristic conclusion there, Whitey... The albino has been profiled on our very previous board by those up the food chain as being no more than a *D* in reflection of his tricks (or lack there of) he pulls from his bag in that respect, eh?

You see Duck...versatility is an increasingly difficult thing for people to pull off as they age... You knoe what I'm talking about. Those who started out conservatively--progressively put themselves out of reach in that respect--leaving the wild fucks of youth to do all the scoring on everyone who are moving in the opposite direction (mostly women)--trying to overcompensate and make up for lost time...as they've let their youth pass them by. The better man is the one secure enough to acknowledge his feminitity...and his woman is the one who reaps that benefit. The same thing with respect to extremes is true in this example. The aging home run hitter leans on his single strength as he ages. Like anyone, age diminishes his strengths. Sooner, age diminishes the one-trick pony home-run hitter from the game...and those on the bench--I don't care if you're 30 or 50--NEVER score. Why? Because they never make it up to to the plate...

TT will never improve. Once you hit 40--if the vision doesn't hit you...it never will before it is too late. His strength is derived exclusively from his gift in knowing raw talent when he sees it...and projecting the prospect of that talent into success on a whole different plane. His natural downfall in that recipe is his age. His success is in the ratio of his exposure to true elite talent. He knows it when he sees it, right? Already 90% ahead of the game. It's the seeing it part that will ultimately be his doom... Just like Ron Wolf--his mentor...at some point--you just can't do it anymore... You burn yourself at both ends of the bridge...and are left wondering why you never allocated the time to become a stronger swimmer...

TT is just a GUY--among the people I deal with... As I've said consistently whether he is winning superbowls--or preventing them from being a reality--without a level of charm beyond my filters--he'd be unlikely to ever make it beyond my desk... He's lucky he's a charter member in a country club of fucking morons... Reality is what you are, eh?

A "D" for a guy who scored almost a dozen productive undrafted free agents and landed the 2009 defensive player of the year in Charles Woodson? I acknowledge that this part of his job is not TT's strength but a weakness. However, I think giving him a D is a rather, uh, polarized assessment.

Other than that, I think you do a pretty good job of profiling the albino, and you're dead on the mark with one comment: "versatility is an increasingly difficult thing for people to pull off as they age". Sadly, the human brain doesn't age so well. You can stave off much of the inevitable deterioration by using the damn thing (so many people literally "shut down" in their fifties), but an older guy will never be able to match the innovative capability of a younger guy. It's a sad fact of life... and it happens to all of us.

Getting back to the Packers and TT, however, my point is that, even with his warts and flaws, and even if TT is, as you say, "just a guy"... we're lucky to have him and he's better than 90-95% of the other possibilities we could have.

<G> I acknowledge your point with respect to Charles Woodson and the on balance--fine job TT has done pulling serviceable street free agents off the scrap heap. Pickett is another one he can hang his hat on--that guy has been a value not exceeded by his size...however Duck--you're living in the past... How long has Woodson been around now...or Pickett? TT shined in 2010 with his replacement of the troops that went down in battle...but it's a *what have you done for me lately* business...in a *what have you done for me lately* world, my friend...and TT dropped the ball last season in addressing some very obvious needs--and those very needs left unaddressed are what ultimately were exposed between the goal lines... That--coupled with McCarthy's choke job in the playoffs--leaves a *braintrust* with something again to prove in my eyes...

No question... the near reverence I once had for both TT and MM is gone. However, based on the last couple of seasons, I am still solidly in their camp. Surely you're not advocating some sort of shake up right now, are you, HD?

Even WITHOUT major changes to our crappy defense, the Packers would likely be playoff-worthy in the 2012 season. With any kind of substantial improvements, this team could very possibly take home another Lombardi Trophy.

Vegas has already posted the Packers as the Super Bowl favorite for next year. I realize that's merely a gauge of where the money is going, but it does suggest that the immediate future does not appear particularly gloomy.

All of your criticisms are duly noted, HD, but the twenty dollar question is: do you think any changes should be made at either head coach or general manager?

duck wrote:No question... the near reverence I once had for both TT and MM is gone. However, based on the last couple of seasons, I am still solidly in their camp. Surely you're not advocating some sort of shake up right now, are you, HD?

Even WITHOUT major changes to our crappy defense, the Packers would likely be playoff-worthy in the 2012 season. With any kind of substantial improvements, this team could very possibly take home another Lombardi Trophy.

Vegas has already posted the Packers as the Super Bowl favorite for next year. I realize that's merely a gauge of where the money is going, but it does suggest that the immediate future does not appear particularly gloomy.

All of your criticisms are duly noted, HD, but the twenty dollar question is: do you think any changes should be made at either head coach or general manager?

<G> Of course not, Duck. Nobody is perfect--and those who expect perfection are often those with the most eggregious flaws themselves... Your mistake is that you/others had *near reverence* for TT and MM to begin with. They are no different in their capabilities today than they were the day they hoisted the Lombardi--and, as I've said repeatedly over the years, they are both strong B players who, to their credit, have found each other and produce a professional synergy together that exceeds the sum of their parts. B players however...DO make substantial fuck-ups periodically. That's why they are B players...

Replacing either of them at this point would fuck up the chemistry--making the one left behind less effective by virtue of the loss of the synergy factor. Beyond that--how many true A players exist at the Head Coach and GM level in this league that continues to find established failures like Mike Sherman and Brad Childress viable prospect for consideration in head coaching roles?

No, Duck--the reality is that TT and MM are just about as good a tandem as we/anyone in the NFL could ever hope for--so yeah--go ahead feel confident tying up your raft to the mother ship...but take my advice and leave more slack in your bow lines for those inevitable moments with this pair when the Captain has left the bridge while navigating choppy waters, eh?

HD: the reality is that TT and MM are just about as good a tandem as we/anyone in the NFL could ever hope for



That's more or less my point.